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Sad Similarities Between Under-Performance of “America’s Team” and of “America’s President”

One of the topics of this morning’s “First Take” show on ESPN had Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless discussing the Dallas Cowboys’ recent addition of an offensive coach who would be in charge of passing plays. Both of them expressed incredulity at the never-ending parade of bad moves for one of the country’s seemingly most popular teams, even though it continues astonishing under-performance. When Stephen A. had his turn, it was striking to this blogger how similar the Cowboys’ ownership and lack of accomplishments mirror the Obama presidency.

Cowboys and Obama are Primarily Hype

Stephen A. on Cowboys owner Jerry Jones: “He’s a hype machine personified – nothing more.” This is not the first time we’ve heard him say that about Jones.

Our president came to mind immediately. His first claim to fame was his work as a “community organizer.” There has always been a great disparity in the opinions of what he actually accomplished. But we do know that Mr. Obama voted “present” 129 times in the Illinois state Senate1 and couldn’t even bring himself to vote against the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion.2

Of course, the Administration will tout the fact that the nation’s unemployment rate is down to 6.7%, but disregard the lowest employment participation rate in decades.3 They also ignore that underemployment is still a serious problem.4 The nation’s economic “recovery” is greatly overrated – just ask the average guy on the street.5

Decisions with Multiple Negative Consequences

As Skip pointed out, the Cowboys made their most recent big mistake by: 1) hiring a non-descript college coach 2) putting him in a position which has been designed to infringe on the head coach’s authority, thus rightfully making him unhappy.

In the U.S. parallel, Obama made his own mistake with much larger and triple negative consequences. He continues to push his (Un)Affordable Health Care Act and has put the IRS in charge of enforcing it. The first consequence of this ill-advised move was a very dissatisfied populace because it was lied to by the President. He promised that if we liked our current insurance, we could keep it. It has since become apparent that he knew that this would not be the case.6 Consequence #2: it was made more painful in that he never warned us that premiums would increase substantially for so many. Consequence #3: is that we have an untrustworthy organization (the IRS which likes to target political enemies) in charge of the health care industry which represents one-sixth of our economy! Now, that’s reason to be unhappy.

Each Has Trouble Spending Money Wisely

Last year, Jerry Jones gave his starting quarterback, Tony Romo, an amazingly lucrative contract. It is “a six-year, $108 million contract extension with $55 million in guarantees and a $25 million signing bonus.”7 His 55-38 regular season record and 95.6 passer rating are all well and good. However, there’s this little problem of his 1-3 record as a starter in the playoffs plus an 0-3 record when a playoff spot was on the line.8

Our form of government is supposed to have checks and balances which would prevent one branch from dominating the other two. However, President Obama acts more like Quarterback Obama (that is, a quarterback who won’t listen to his offensive coordinator and ignores his head coach). And while many are sure that he simply cares about the little guy, along with mom-and-pop companies like General Motors and the health insurance industry, there’s this little problem of a $17 trillion federal deficit to which he has contributed greatly. But just like Mr. Jones’ supporters, many of Obama’s cheerleaders deny that our federal government has a spending problem.9

Perhaps, General Manager and would-be owner Obama is hoping these distractions will make us forget his deliberate lie about what instigated the Benghazi murders. It was repeated by his office staff to protect his claim that Al-Qaeda was retreating in order to protect votes in his close re-election bid.10 This is not even addressing the increasing concern that, despite damage to their economies and infrastructure, Iran and Syria are not helping to form a less volatile Middle East region.

To Sum it Up

As Stephen A. Smith said this morning, “The Dallas Cowboys are a joke! Your record says you stink, but you get a billion dollar playpen.” Plug in “Obama Administration” for “Dallas Cowboys” and “trillion” in place of “billion” and you have the true state of the union as we head into tonight’s address… If only Obama‘s decisions would result in as good a record as Dallas’ mediocre and perennial 8-8, we’d be much better off.

1 – while “just” 3% of the approximate 4,000 votes he cast while in office, from “The New York Times (Dec. 20, 2007): Sometimes the “present” votes were in line with instructions from Democratic leaders or because he objected to provisions in bills that he might otherwise support. At other times, Mr. Obama voted present on questions that had overwhelming bipartisan support. In at least a few cases, the issue was politically sensitive.” And from the same article, “If you are worried about your next election, the present vote gives you political cover,” said Kent D. Redfield, a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “This is an option that does not exist [in] every state and reflects Illinois political culture.” Taken from www.factcheck.org, 9/25/2008

2 – “According to a lobbyist for Illinois NOW, Susan Bramlet Lavin, the Planned Parenthood strategy in Illinois was for its politicians to vote “present” because it provided political cover, yet acted as a “no” vote. Obama twice voted present (no) on Partial Birth Abortion Ban Acts. He also voted present twice against Parental Notification of Abortion Acts, twice against laws to protect live-born children of abortions, and he even voted against a bill defining “born-alive infant” to include infants “born alive at any stage of development.”
Obama liked this strategy, and the Illinois branch of Planned Parenthood gave him a “100 percent” pro-choice voting rating for good reason. From “The Planned Parenthood President: Obama’s obsession with abortion,” by Paul E. Rondeau, www.communities.washingtonpost.com, 10/15/2012

3 – “Some economists question the falling unemployment rate from the beginning of the year, explaining that the work force participation rate, the portion of adults who are working or actively looking for work, has fallen to its lowest level since 1978… The participation rate for workers aged 16 to 54 dropped drastically during the recession and not yet recovered, indicating that retirements don’t entirely explain the situation, according to The Post.” from “Joel Naroff: Why This Economic Recovery Is So Slow” (quoted sections were not made by Joel Naroff), by Michael Kling, www.moneynews.com, 11/19/2013

4 – from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (through the 3rd quarter 2013, next update will be on January 31, 2014): “In addition to the marginally attached, who are included in U-5, involuntary part-time workers are included in U-6. The larger the difference between the U-5 and U-6 measures, the higher the incidence of this form of “underemployment.” California and Oregon posted the largest gaps between their U-5 and U-6 rates, +7.0 percentage points each. North Dakota registered the smallest difference between its U-5 and U-6 rates, +2.3 percentage points, indicating a comparatively low degree of involuntary part-time employment.”
However, this data does not include full-time workers who are making much less than their qualifications suggest probably because such a measure, while illustrative of the poor recovery, would be considered prone to subjective error.

5 – Despite long-trusted official indicators to the contrary, the number of those who approve the way the President is handling the economy is below 40%. Perhaps these indicators no longer reflect accurately the real overall condition of the economy in the same way “unemployment rate” is failing to account for enough. Only the statistic was taken from “Obama’s Puzzle: Economy Rarely Better, Approval Rarely Worse,” by Jackie Calmes, The New York Times, 1/27/2014

9 – “So, it is almost a false wrong to say we have a spending problem. We have a deficit problem that we have to address. Right now, we have low interest on the national debt and it’s a good time for us to act to lower the deficit.” Quote from Nancy Pelosi in an interview with Chris Wallace, 2/10/2013, www.nation.foxnews.com.

10 – … instead of protecting U.S. citizens. “Obama Says The War on Terror Is Over and Al Qaeda Says…” by Larry Kelley, www.dcclotheslines.com, 6/7/2013